Elite Universities Are Out of Touch

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Looking out the window of a plane flying over Boulder, Colorado,recently, I was reminded how much American universities stick out from their surroundings.

2I’d never been to Boulder, or visited the University of Colorado’s flagship campus there, but even from 30,000 feet,I could tell exactly where it started and ended. The red-tile roofs and quadrangles of the campus formed a little self-contained world, totally distinct from the grid of single-family homes1single-family home 独栋房，一般为单户家庭而建造。that surrounded it.

3In urban universities2urban university 市区大学，指美国和加拿大地处市区并以所在市区为重点服务对象的大学。, the dividing line between the campus and the community can be even starker. At the University of Southern California, for example, students must check in with security officers when entering the gates of the university at night. At Yale, castlelike architecture makes the campus feel like a fortified3fortify 筑城防御；增强，加固。enclave4enclave 飞地（某国或某市境内隶属外国或外市，具有不同宗教、文化或民族的领土）。. The elite American university today is a paradox:Even as concerns about social justice continue to preoccupy students and administrations, these universities often seem to be out of touch with the society they claim to care so much about. Many on the right and in the center believe universities have become ideological echo chambers5echo chamber 回音室，常用于“回音室效应”（echo chamber effect），即如果意见相近的声音在一个相对封闭的环境中不断重复，就会让此环境中的大多数人认为这些扭曲的故事就是真相和真理，不知不觉中窄化自己的眼界和理解，从而走向故步自封甚至偏执极化。. Some on the left see them as “sepulchers6sepulcher 坟墓，葬身之地。for radical thought.”

最近，我乘飞机飞过科罗拉多州博尔德县上空。透过舷窗向外望去，我不禁意识到，美国的大学在周边环境的映衬下竟是如此醒目。

2我从未去过博尔德县，也没有参观过科罗拉多大学的这座主校区，可即便是从三万英尺的高度俯瞰，我照样能准确辨别校区边界。红瓦屋顶与方形校园自成一体，构成了与周边网格化的独户式住宅截然不同的小世界。

3在市区大学，校园与社区之间的界线会更加分明。比如在南加利福尼亚大学，学生夜间入校时必须在安保人员处登记。在耶鲁，城堡造型的建筑让校园看上去像是筑有防御工事的飞地。今天的美国精英大学本身就自相矛盾：尽管学生和学校管理部门始终专注社会公正问题，这些大学却往往与其声称甚为关注的社会相脱节。许多右翼和中间派认为，大学已成为附和意识形态的“回音室”，而左翼一些观点则将大学视为“埋葬激进思想的坟墓”。

4Public debate over the state of higher education has intensified in recent years. Ideology and institutional culture get frequent attention, but a key factor is often ignored: geography.

5The campus is a uniquely American invention. (The term originated in the late 1700s to describe Princeton.) Efforts to create separate environments for scholars came about at a time when elite American opinion was convinced that cities were hotbeds of moral corruption. Keeping students in rural areas and on self-contained campuses, it was thought, would protect their virtue.

6Though such ideas have lost their appeal in recent years, to this day American universities are radically more isolated from their surrounding communities than their European counterparts are. And being situated around a strongly defined central campus, often featuring trademark Gothic-style architecture, remains a point of pride for elite American universities.

4近年来，关于高等教育现状的公开辩论愈发激烈。意识形态和机构文化屡受关注，但地理这一关键因素却常被忽略。

5校园是美国特有的产物。（该词最早见于18 世纪末，用来形容普林斯顿大学。）美国精英派一度坚信，城市是滋生道德腐化的温床，于是便着手为学者打造独立的环境。人们认为，将学生安置在乡村地区自成一体的校园里，可以保护他们的德行。

6尽管此类观点近年来已失去热度，时至今日，与欧洲大学相比，美国的大学从根本上讲更脱离周边社区。轮廓分明的中心校区往往以标志性的哥特式建筑为特色，这一直是美国精英大学引以为傲之处。

7But the campus, by design, restricts opportunities to encounter people from a wider range of professions, education levels and class backgrounds. Of course, students like to spend time with other students, and scholars associate with other scholars. And that’s good for education and research. But there’s no need to enforce a geographical separation from society on top of it.

8We all instinctively extrapolate7extrapolate 推断，推知。insights from our own communities and day-to-day interactions, imagining they are true about the nation at large. Inevitably, that means our view of the country is a little distorted—but for those in the university, the distortions can be extreme. Stuck on campus, academics risk limiting their knowledge and toleration of a wider sweep of American society.

9To put it another way, what’s most dangerous for the health of America’s intellectual elite is not that most professors have similar cultural tastes and similar liberal politics. That will probably always be the case. It’s that the campus setup makes it easy for them to forget that reasonable people often don’t share their outlook.

7然而，校园从设计上就限制了拓展交际圈的机会，妨碍结识不同职业、学历和阶层背景的群体。当然，学生喜欢与其他学生在一起，学者愿意同其他学者交往，这有利于开展教育和研究，但没必要在此基础上再强加一条地理界线，把校园与社会分隔开。

8我们都本能地基于自己所在的社区和日常交往做出推断，觉得自己洞察到的就是整个国家的真貌，这不可避免地意味着我们对国家的看法略微失真。可对于那些身处大学的人而言，这种失真可能会达到极点。学者们被束缚在校园内，对更大范围的美国社会的了解和容忍度会受限。

9换言之，就美国知识精英的现状而言，最大的危险并非大多数大学教师拥有趋同的文化品味和类似的自由主义政治观。这种情况可能会一直如此。最大的危险在于，校园的建构让他们易于忘记：有识之士往往不同意他们的观点。

10The highly educated are far more liberal than average Americans. The divide isn’t just political: Whatever their socioeconomic backgrounds, students and professors have daily routines that are very different from those of lawyers,shopkeepers or manual laborers—and that shapes their worldviews.

11Life at a university with a dominant central campus can also narrow students’ views on the world. Letting the university take care of all of students’needs—food, housing, health care, policing, punishing misbehavior—can be infantilizing for young adults. Worse, it warps8warp（使）扭曲，使（行为等）不合情理。students’ political thinking to eat food that simply materializes in front of them and live in residence halls that others keep clean.

12Community outreach programs9community outreach program 社区外展项目，是一种让学生走出校园、深入社区，向有需要的群体提供帮助和服务，从而获得学习体验和实际经验，并助力社区发展的教育实践活动。can help broaden students’ outlook, but the better approach would be to configure the physical footprint10footprint（某物所占的）平面面积。of universities in a way that makes interactions with surrounding communities natural.

13By and large, urban state universities like Rutgers University’s Newark campus have done a much better job integrating with their environments than elite private universities. But colleges in smaller cities, towns and suburbs could also do more to integrate their physical presences more seamlessly with the surrounding environment. Both university and community have a lot to gain.

10高学历者远比普通美国百姓更具自由主义倾向。差异不仅限于政治层面。无论大学师生的社会经济背景如何，他们的日常生活与律师、店主或体力劳动者截然不同——这便塑造了他们的世界观。

11在一座拥有主导性中心校区的大学里生活还可能让学生的世界观变得狭隘。大学包揽了学生的全部需求，比如饮食、住宿、就医、治安、惩戒等，这会让年轻人变成“巨婴”。更糟糕的是，吃的东西有人端到面前，住的宿舍有人负责打扫，这扭曲了学生的政治观念。

12社区外展项目有助于开拓学生的视野，但最好能好好规划大学的实体校区建设，使学生与周边社区的互动自然而然。

13总体而言，与私立精英大学相比，罗格斯大学纽瓦克分校等市区州立大学与所处环境融合得更好。但是，地处较小城市、镇区和郊区的大学也可以更有作为，真正让校园与周边环境无缝融合。这样，大学和社区都将获益良多。

14Housing fewer undergraduates on campus would be a good start to encourage more overlap between university and society.

15More interaction with surrounding communities would encourage more student advocacy for issues that have material impacts for society (housing rights, say) and less for those that don’t(such as whether certain public figures should be allowed to speak on campus).

16Universities and local governments should try to prevent students from dominating neighborhoods like Westwood, which is adjacent to U.C.L.A., or else they will come to function as extensions of the campus, defeating the point of these efforts to integrate the student population into surrounding communities.

17The federal government has massive influence over higher education through its funding powers and could provide additional funds for colleges that configure their physical footprints in a less centralized way.

18There’s a cultural change that needs to happen, too: Americans need to stop associating the central campus with prestige and looking down—often tacitly—on so-called commuter schools,where most don’t live in campus accommodations. Finally, there’s room for an upstart university to demonstrate that higher learning can be a success even when it’s not oriented around a campus.A university that does not fortify itself against its surrounding community can make much better use of its cultural resources.

14为推动大学与社会更多地交融，不妨从削减住校本科生人数做起。

15增进与周边社区的互动会更多地鼓励学生围绕能对社会产生实质影响的问题提出主张（比如住房权利），而非针对那些无关痛痒的问题（比如是否允许某些公众人物来校园演讲）。

16大学和地方政府应做出努力，避免像韦斯特伍德（与加州大学洛杉矶分校毗邻）那样让学生成为社区主要人群，否则这些社区将成为校园的延伸，让学生融入周边社区的种种努力失去意义。

17联邦政府凭借资金拨付权对高等教育施加重大影响，对于以不那么集中的方式规划校园建设的大学，还可以提供额外资金。

18此外，文化层面也需要做出改变。美国人不能再把中心校区同声望联系起来，也不能再经常是心照不宣地蔑视多数学生不住校的所谓走读制学校。最后，新贵大学可以想办法证明：即便不把关注点放在校园，高等教育也能够取得成功。一所大学不在自身与周边社区之间筑防，就能更好地利用其文化资源。

19Reacquainting the university with society is also a chance to redouble our attention to American urbanism. For urban universities to be able to blend into their surroundings, cities must be safe, affordable and pleasant. Colleges should work with local governments to address problems like homelessness,crime and cost of living. Wealthier universities could take a first step by using their full coffers11coffer（政府、机构等的）金库，资金。and extensive realestate holdings to build homeless shelters and affordable housing—then reap benefits from the improved health of their host cities.

20The university shouldn’t be made indistinguishable from other institutions. That would mean replacing its much-needed critical instinct with conformism and commercialization. But it badly needs more integration with society, and the best way to do that is to knock down some of the many barriers that separate it from the world outside.

19让大学与社会重新相识相知，也能让我们更加关注美国的城市生活。市区大学要想融入所处环境，城市就必须安全无忧、价格合理、舒适宜人。学院应与地方政府合作，解决无家可归、犯罪、生活成本等问题。经济相对宽裕的大学第一步要做的，是拿出其全部资金和大量不动产安置无家可归者，建造保障性住房，改善所在城市的现状并从中获益。

20相比其他机构，大学不应失去自身特征。所谓失去自身特征，就是用循规蹈矩和商业化观念取代大学急需的批判本能。但是，大学迫切需要与社会更加融合，而最好的实现方式就是破除一部分将大学与外界隔开的重重障碍。